Police arrest man in possession of 1 billion baht worth of meth

Police arrest man in possession of 1 billion baht worth of meth

The national police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda told reporters Tuesday that his officers had arrested a 30-year- old man in Nakhon Ratchasima who was in possession of 508 kilograms of methamphetamine (ice) which had a reported street value of 1 billion baht.

Officers spotted Thinnakorn Khomsing acting suspiciously with another man outside a temple in the Bau Yai district before following the pair to a pickup the police were currently on the lookout for after it fled a police checkpoint earlier in the day.

Officers apprehended Thinnakorn at a nearby train station but the man he was with identified only as bee managed to avoid capture, officers then searched the truck and found the sizable amount of meth.

Thinnakorn told officers that he had been hired to transport the drugs to an unknown location and paid 20,000 baht to do so, he claimed the man who hired him said he would receive further instructions once he reached his destination.

The deputy police commissioner General Chalermkiat Srivorakarn told reporters that drugs smugglers usually brought drugs in from the North but due to recent increased patrols and checkpoints they have begun using north-eastern roads to transport the drugs to southern Thailand.

He said had the drugs reached their intended destination they could have left the country to be sold abroad at a value surpassing their estimated 1 billion baht street value.